My life from the shams to the Dock .... essentially the inner west of Sydney.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Nothin Much

"Out here nothin' changes, not in a hurry anyway ..."Yep - that is my life at the moment. Still in real estate woes, Hannah still has a cold so P rescheduled her appointment with the audiologist, still trying to balance home, work, kids and my own time.Hannah and Kit went on an excursion to the Australian Museum on Friday with their Child care centre. I wish I could have seen all those little kids on the bus!! I was worried about Hannah as even though my MIL had said she would be able to go too - there was no more room on the bus - so Hannah was off on her first 'mainstream' excursion without any of her family there to look after her (besides Kit of course!).

The CCC have always been great baout having Hannah there - but it isn't always a smooth road - one of the costs of mainstreaming is the lack of expertise in working with Han, the higher ratio of kids (no extra staff allocation for Hannah) - and for a child like Hannah it hasn't always been ideal.

Hannah isn't the stereotypical 'down's kid' that people (generally who don't know anyone with DS!) might imagine. She is quite self sufficient, not very confident in engaging others in play or in joining in in their games - so at cc she tends to play alone or alongside other kids. She doesn't talk much but has good receptive language skills and enjoys following the routine - so is no 'trouble' - in other words sometimes she cruises thorugh her day without any challenging tasks - and she really needs those challenges to extend her play etc.

The carers in her new room have been getting to know her. They have been doing some one-on-one work with her - and she has been making good progress as a result - for example they were very excited to say that one of her main carers there had got Hannah to say - 2 words, loudly! - She said "No wee!" - so you can guess the preceding events ... Still I don't think that they really knew Hannah - the fun loving, cheeky, excited little girl that runs wildly through the house - that Hannah is only seen by her family and those she loves best - like her friend Rosani.

SO I was absolutely overjoyed to see the teachers - tired after a big day out with 30 3 - 4 year olds - talking excitedly about how Hannah 'had come to life', how the carer that had spent the day looking after her - had enough photoes to write a book just on Hannah, How they had had so much fun together, how it had been 'really moving' to see the joy on her face. Yes mainstreaming has its costs but on days like those I feel so optimistic that it is worth every bit of 'missed' structure in her day. They now know what Hannah is like when she is comfortable and with people she loves. How good is that???

Kit also had a good day - sat on the bus with his best friend. He excitedly told me about some of the things that they had seen - but not too much because he said that now we had to take him there! So I guess that is an excursion for the family in the near future.

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About Me

My name is Shelley. I live in Sydney, Australia. I have two children - 9 year old twins - Hannah and Kit. I used to work part time as a high school teacher, Social Sciences, now I work part time in special education at a local High School. I love reading and a variety of music - mostly country and jazz/blues stuff. I also quilt - or should I say I used to quilt - when I had time!☛oops - UPDATED to say - I am quilting (somewhat) again! ✂Hannah my eldest twin has Down Syndrome. Kit her little brother has a lot of his father's temperment!